We started with the Book of Mormon, sang 5 Little Monkeys and read a bunch of poems from Animal Crackers. That has to be one of the best books for quick poems that appeal to kids. They aren't sickly sweet (although they are sweet) and they aren't about how they hate their brothers. I just really like the book.
Harry had a spelling "test," which really is a spelling test. He writes the words from his lesson this week and if he gets any wrong, he writes them in the little spelling glossary section of his book. Today he got three wrong, which means that instead of moving on to a new lesson next week, we'll go over the concepts from this one again.
He also took a math test, which he aced. Skip counting is just plain fun. Oh yeah, we also did a quick grammar review in the form of "Simon Says." The kids just stand up and I'll say a word. If it is a verb, they do that, if it is something else they stand there and stare at me. Actually, Harry identifies the part of speech it is.
In between all of this learning and reviewing, Sam and Annika were making me delicacies with the new kitchen we got the other day.
I also read to Harry from 50 Famous Stories--it was about a rock in the North Sea. We looked up the North Sea and he narrated the passage. I'll post it later if I can.
Over lunch and snack we read Archimedes Takes a Bath. We haven't finished it yet, but so far everyone loves it.At some point we took out William Shakespeare and the Globe by Aliki and read a little about Shakespeare's life. I thought I'd impress the boys by telling them that I have been to his house. They just looked at me, blinking, "you've been to someone's house, yay." They didn't say that, but I know that's what they were thinking.
After lunch they went out to play where Annika go filthy and had to have a bath, so we had an impromptu bathtime for the kids. Harry also amused himself by finding all of the contractions in a passage. Hey, it works for him.
Now it's quiet time--the boys are acting out invasions and wars in the loft and the little girls are asleep (I love saying that). We'll go out later on--to the library and Kinko's or Staples, but for now, we're all tucked in nice and cozy at home.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The Aftermath
It looks like a volcano and an earthquake hit our kitchen!
A close up of Harry's: (The little guy is saying, "run away!")
Here's Sam's: (I made the one in the background)
Annika was busy too:
A close up of Harry's: (The little guy is saying, "run away!")
Here's Sam's: (I made the one in the background)
Annika was busy too:
Sunday, February 17, 2008
The Upcoming Week
We have a busy week this week--full of friends, family, doctor's appointments, classes, and other fun. So I need to be especially organized to get everything accomplished that I need and want to.
Here's what's happening:
Monday: Sea World in the afternoon with Adam
Tuesday: Speech all morning and Harry's friend from preschool is coming over in the afternoon
Wednesday: Harry has classes all day
Thursday: Speech first thing in the morning and another friend coming in the afternoon
Friday: Emma has a doctor's appointment at 11. (side note, no more appointments at 11, it just doesn't work for us!)
Things I need/want to accomplish this week:
Math: Lesson 6.
Spellng: Review Lesson 32. Only 4 more in this book.
Grammar: A lesson every day. Action verbs are a lot of fun around here!
History: Athens and Sparta. We're backing off a bit, not abandoning it all together. I think we'll do the "book work" for now and save the project time for science. Speaking of which...
Science: Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We'll build a pretend seismograph and a paper volcano. I have absolutely no desire to do the baking soda version right now. Maybe when we finish our earth science studies, but not now.
Season notebooks: More about winter. Somewhere I have a list of what I wanted to put in their notebooks. I'll find it and do it. Then I can return all of the winter books to the library and check out the spring ones.
Poetry, art, music. Please.
President's Day is tomorrow--we'll continue to read George Washington. At this rte we might finish it by President's Day 2009!
Various other readings from the Ambleside list.
That's all. I think a week should about do it. I'll let you know how it turns out in the end!
Here's what's happening:
Monday: Sea World in the afternoon with Adam
Tuesday: Speech all morning and Harry's friend from preschool is coming over in the afternoon
Wednesday: Harry has classes all day
Thursday: Speech first thing in the morning and another friend coming in the afternoon
Friday: Emma has a doctor's appointment at 11. (side note, no more appointments at 11, it just doesn't work for us!)
Things I need/want to accomplish this week:
Math: Lesson 6.
Spellng: Review Lesson 32. Only 4 more in this book.
Grammar: A lesson every day. Action verbs are a lot of fun around here!
History: Athens and Sparta. We're backing off a bit, not abandoning it all together. I think we'll do the "book work" for now and save the project time for science. Speaking of which...
Science: Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We'll build a pretend seismograph and a paper volcano. I have absolutely no desire to do the baking soda version right now. Maybe when we finish our earth science studies, but not now.
Season notebooks: More about winter. Somewhere I have a list of what I wanted to put in their notebooks. I'll find it and do it. Then I can return all of the winter books to the library and check out the spring ones.
Poetry, art, music. Please.
President's Day is tomorrow--we'll continue to read George Washington. At this rte we might finish it by President's Day 2009!
Various other readings from the Ambleside list.
That's all. I think a week should about do it. I'll let you know how it turns out in the end!
I never expected this
Harry has been interested in the military and weaponry since he was very small--it happens when you idolize your Uncle who is a Marine. He's always checked out library books about the military and that's been fine. We made the decision to channel that interest into history--specifically, Roman history. So for the last couple of months, he and Sam have "been" Romans. Again, that's fine.
For a while it was fine at least. We thought it was fun and interesting to see both Harry and Sam so involved with something. But, Harry is slightly obsessive, which means that he will only want to know about or do one thing at a time. He doesn't want to do his school work because he only wants to study history. He tries to make deals with me, "I will only do this math if we do history first." While one of the nice things about homeschooling is that he can follow an interest for a while. But he's not following an interest anymore--it's become his life!
I'm making the conscious decision to put history on the back burner for a while. We'll still study and find out information, but I won't be checking a ton of books out of the library for further study. I will try to steer him to other books when he has free-reading time. We are going to get back into our nature walks a bit more and finally finish the "winter" portion of our seasons notebook. We will study history a bit, it just won't be the focus. We are also going to put the playmobil away for a while--the Romans and the castle guys. We are pulling out the legos and the trains and building huge train tracks that stretch between the rooms.
My hope is that he'll realize that there is a lot of information out there and not all of it has to do with war and fighting. I'm sure he'll get obsessed with something else soon enough and I'll be back here trying to figure out what to do again!
For a while it was fine at least. We thought it was fun and interesting to see both Harry and Sam so involved with something. But, Harry is slightly obsessive, which means that he will only want to know about or do one thing at a time. He doesn't want to do his school work because he only wants to study history. He tries to make deals with me, "I will only do this math if we do history first." While one of the nice things about homeschooling is that he can follow an interest for a while. But he's not following an interest anymore--it's become his life!
I'm making the conscious decision to put history on the back burner for a while. We'll still study and find out information, but I won't be checking a ton of books out of the library for further study. I will try to steer him to other books when he has free-reading time. We are going to get back into our nature walks a bit more and finally finish the "winter" portion of our seasons notebook. We will study history a bit, it just won't be the focus. We are also going to put the playmobil away for a while--the Romans and the castle guys. We are pulling out the legos and the trains and building huge train tracks that stretch between the rooms.
My hope is that he'll realize that there is a lot of information out there and not all of it has to do with war and fighting. I'm sure he'll get obsessed with something else soon enough and I'll be back here trying to figure out what to do again!
Friday, February 01, 2008
Harry's Book Reviews
Life in a Medieval Castle, by Jane Shuter
It didn't give that much information about knights. It had a lot of information about how people lived in castles. If you like castles, you should read it.
Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of History
I read the parts about Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Castles. There is a part about the first Olympic Games that's interesting. The parts I read were good because they gave a lot of information. But it doesn't give all of the information you want, so you should look somewhere else for more.
Eyewitness Books: Castle by Christopher Gravett
It had a whole bunch of information about castles and more information about knights than Life in a Medieval Castle. I liked the information and it has pictures about the things they were talking about in it. If they were talking about knights, they would show a knight.
Usborne Book of Castles, by Lesley Sims
It has chapters about different topics, so one chapter is called "war" and it shows what knights would do in a war. There is a lot more information in it than the Eyewitness Book of Castles. They both have the same kind of pictures though. If you were going to check one of them out of the library, you should get this one. (He's taking a quick reading break.)
Usborne Greek Myths for Young Children
It has a whole bunch of Greek myths. There is one called "The Gift of Fire' and the chief god Zeus let the people live on earth but he didn't let them have fire. So the god Prometheus stole a piece of burning charcoal from Zeus' palace. Zeus could smell the food that the people were having and he knew that Prometheus had stolen charcoal from his palace. He chained Prometheus to a mountain side and ever day an eagle tore out his liver and every night a new one grew back. He had to sit there for hundreds of years until the god Zeus forgave him.
There are lots of good drawings in this book too.
The Trojan Horse, by Warwick Hutton
The Greeks won the Trojan War by building the Trojan Horse. It's a big wooden horse that the Greeks made and the goddess Athena told Odysseus to write her name in the side. Then the Greek ships left and the Trojans thought they had won the war and they brought the Trojan horse in the city. Then they feasted and danced until they got tired and went back to their houses. When they were all tired, Odysseus and the other Greeks opened the door to the city so the other ones could get in. Then they stormed through the city and won the battle.
How to Be a Medieval Knight, by Fiona MacDonald
It has a lot of information about knights--more than any other of the castle books. It tells how the knights fought and what they used for their weapons and how they lived and practiced and became knights. There are questions in the back to answer. They are about what knights did and what to do if you were under siege. The answers are on the last page on the bottom right corner.
If you were interested in knights, this would be a good book to read.
There are other ones like this on being a Roman Soldier and a Samurai Warrior. And an Aztec Warrior.
It didn't give that much information about knights. It had a lot of information about how people lived in castles. If you like castles, you should read it.
Usborne Internet-Linked First Encyclopedia of History
I read the parts about Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and Medieval Castles. There is a part about the first Olympic Games that's interesting. The parts I read were good because they gave a lot of information. But it doesn't give all of the information you want, so you should look somewhere else for more.
Eyewitness Books: Castle by Christopher Gravett
It had a whole bunch of information about castles and more information about knights than Life in a Medieval Castle. I liked the information and it has pictures about the things they were talking about in it. If they were talking about knights, they would show a knight.
Usborne Book of Castles, by Lesley Sims
It has chapters about different topics, so one chapter is called "war" and it shows what knights would do in a war. There is a lot more information in it than the Eyewitness Book of Castles. They both have the same kind of pictures though. If you were going to check one of them out of the library, you should get this one. (He's taking a quick reading break.)
Usborne Greek Myths for Young Children
It has a whole bunch of Greek myths. There is one called "The Gift of Fire' and the chief god Zeus let the people live on earth but he didn't let them have fire. So the god Prometheus stole a piece of burning charcoal from Zeus' palace. Zeus could smell the food that the people were having and he knew that Prometheus had stolen charcoal from his palace. He chained Prometheus to a mountain side and ever day an eagle tore out his liver and every night a new one grew back. He had to sit there for hundreds of years until the god Zeus forgave him.
There are lots of good drawings in this book too.
The Trojan Horse, by Warwick Hutton
The Greeks won the Trojan War by building the Trojan Horse. It's a big wooden horse that the Greeks made and the goddess Athena told Odysseus to write her name in the side. Then the Greek ships left and the Trojans thought they had won the war and they brought the Trojan horse in the city. Then they feasted and danced until they got tired and went back to their houses. When they were all tired, Odysseus and the other Greeks opened the door to the city so the other ones could get in. Then they stormed through the city and won the battle.
How to Be a Medieval Knight, by Fiona MacDonald
It has a lot of information about knights--more than any other of the castle books. It tells how the knights fought and what they used for their weapons and how they lived and practiced and became knights. There are questions in the back to answer. They are about what knights did and what to do if you were under siege. The answers are on the last page on the bottom right corner.
If you were interested in knights, this would be a good book to read.
There are other ones like this on being a Roman Soldier and a Samurai Warrior. And an Aztec Warrior.
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